Abstract: An imaging system may include a sample stage comprising a surface to support a sample container, the sample container including a sample having a plurality of sample locations; an optical stage to image the sample at the plurality of sample locations; one or more actuators physically coupled to at least one of the sample stage and the optical stage to move the sample stage relative to the optical stage to focus the optical stage onto a current sample location of the plurality of sample locations; a first light source to illuminate the current sample location; a second light source to project a pair of spots on a next sample location of the plurality of sample locations; and a controller to determine, based on an image of the pair of spots projected on the next sample location, a focus setting for the next sample location.

Abstract: A language generator for a speech recognition apparatus scores a word-series hypothesis by combining individual scores for each word in the hypothesis. The hypothesis score for a single word comprises a combination of the estimated conditional probability of occurrence of a first class of words comprising the word being scored, given the occurrence of a context comprising the words in the word-series hypothesis other than the word being scored, and the estimated conditional probability of occurrence of the word being scored given the occurrence of the first class of words, and given the occurrence of the context. An apparatus and method are provided for classifying multiple series of words for the purpose of obtaining useful hypothesis scores in the language generator and speech recognition apparatus.